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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump pass through the Ohio Clock Corridor as they head to McConnell's office before a Republican policy luncheon Tuesday. | John Shinkle/POLITICO

Trump tries to rally Senate Republicans after reigniting civil war

The president visited the Capitol soon after trading insults with Sen. Bob Corker — and at a time when the GOP is desperate for a united front on tax reform.

Just hours after publicly trading insults with a key GOP senator, President Donald Trump kept to the script and held a "productive," hour-long meeting with Senate Republicans, according to several senators.

Trump outlined at length his accomplishments since taking office, and then asked for Senate Republicans to help him push through a major tax-reform package. The assembled GOP senators responded to Trump's appearance with three standing ovations.

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While the "feel good" moment only papered over serious divisions in the party — both personal and policy — Senate Republicans were hopeful that it signaled a chance to cooperate with Trump on taxes, which many rank-and-file lawmakers consider critical to keeping their majorities on Capitol Hill.

Yet soon after the meeting ended, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) made a stunning announcement that he would not run for reelection, quickly diverting attention from what had been a hopeful moment for Trump and Senate Republicans.

“It was about the record of the last nine months and it’s successes in terms of the regulatory environment, consumer confidence, the stock market and also the need to get the work done," Cornyn added.

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Trump and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) were at each other's throats just hours before the highly anticipated session, leading to speculation there would more clashes during Tuesday's GOP senators-only meeting.

But it never happened. Multiple senators said the two didn't interact during the closed-door gathering. Trump took questions from a number of senators, and it was described repeatedly as a"positive" meeting.

“I’m going to do what I think is best for our country, and you know there’s no amount of whatever that someone could do to affect how I might vote on something relative to the policy itself," Corker told reporters afterward.

Those comments followed a series of morning television appearances and Twitter attacks between Corker and Trump, with Corker throwing a sharp jab by saying he would not support Trump again for the presidency in 2020: “He's obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president.” Trump tweeted in response that Corker has been an “incompetent” chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the discussion with the president was "wide-ranging," touching on taxes, opioids, North Korea, Pentagon spending and judicial nominations, among other topics. "It was a positive and healthy conversation."

"There were no fireworks," Cruz added.

"I thought he was relaxed, he was funny. He went over all their accomplishments, talked about us working as a team," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). "Everything was positive."

Graham said Trump did take a hard line on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but he offered no details on the president's message.

Senate Republicans would prefer that the ongoing Corker-Trump spat fade away, particularly as they barrel into an ambitious tax reform push that they want to complete by year’s end. Influential GOP senators say succeeding on a tax overhaul is paramount, particularly with the collapse of Obamacare repeal efforts earlier in Trump’s first year in office.

"Most of the specifics we talked about were tax reform," said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). "We didn't get into 'Should it be this offset or that offset?' He did talk about the importance of reducing business taxes."

Minutes before news of Flake’s retirement stunner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell deflected multiple questions about Corker and other Trump critics, dismissing the intra-GOP fight as “distractions.” The Kentucky Republican attempted to steer the focus back to his party’s tax bill.

“What I have an obligation to do is to try to achieve the greatest cohesion I can among 52 Republicans to try to achieve for the American people the agenda we set out to achieve, and tax reform is what we are about,” McConnell told reporters. "If there’s anything that unifies Republicans, it’s tax reform.”

For his part, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, praised Corker as "hard-working" and "bipartisan." Schumer subtly invoked Corker's Trump criticism to chide the rest of the GOP for a "deviation from truth" in portraying their tax plan as geared toward helping the middle class.

Congressional Republicans helped smooth the path for a tax overhaul by striking a deal to pass a unified GOP budget this week — saving weeks of valuable time that will now be spent hammering out tax details rather than haggling over details of a broad fiscal blueprint.

The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to roll out its tax legislation in the coming days, with the Senate Finance Committee to follow after the House releases its bill. Cornyn said he expected a “lot of common elements” in the two measures.